34 } POLYGON ACEZ. [ Potyconum. 
tightly embracing the stem. Racemes laxly panicled, cylindric, 3-5 
in. long, peduncles stout, erect or drooping ; bracts crowded, 3-6- 
flowered, strigosely tomentose and ciliate. Flowers large ; perianth 
white red or green, 4 or 5 partite. Stamens 7-8, included. Styles 
connate below, stigmas capitellate. Nuwutlets 4 in. long, orbicular, 
compressed, with rounded margins and rather concave faces, black 
and shining when ripe. 
Dehra Dun, in swamps (Falconer, Duthie) ; Sub-Himalayan tracts of 
N. Oudh. Flowers during the rainy season. DistTrre.: Himalaya 
eastwards from Kashmir, ascending to 5,000 ft.; also in Bengal, 
Assam and Burma; extending to Turkestan, Siam, China, Japan, 
Java and Borneo. The plant is often cultivated, and in that condi- 
tion it often becomes almost glabrous. 
3. P. limbatum, Meissn. in DC. Prod. xiv, 123; F. B. I. v, 30; 
Prain Beng. Pl. 886 ; Gage in Rec. Bot. Surv. Ind. wt, 387 ; Cooke 
Fl. Bomb. ti, 515. Ral ta, 
Annual. Stem simple, very stout, erect or prostrate below, pubescent 
or glabrous. Leaves shortly petioled, 4-8 in. long, lanceolate, acumi- 
nate, tapering below, scaberulous on both surfaces ; stipules cylin- 
dric, strigose ; mouth truncate, with a spreading or recurved scabrid 
and ciliate herbaceous limb. Flowers in short erect panicled racemes, 
peduncles strigose ; bracts crowded, hispid. Nutlets } in. in diam.,~ 
orbicular, compressed, margins rounded, faces convex. 
Saharanpur, Rohilkhand (T. Thomson), N. Oudh (R. Thompson), 
Bundelkhand (Vicary), Saugor (Jerdon); usually in wet ground. 
DistriB.: Garhwal, Bengal, W. and 8S. India; extending to Egypt 
and Trop. Africa. 
4.P, lanigerum, Ff. Br. Prod. 419; Royle Ill. 313; F. B. 1. 
v, 35; Prain Beng. Pl. 886; Gage l. c. 394. P. lanatum, Roxb. 
Fl. Ind. wi, 285, 
A robust annual (or perhaps sometimes perennial), 2-5 ft. high. Stem 
stout, prostrate below and rooting at the nodes, clothed with 
snow-white tomentum ; branches slender, deep-red within especially 
at the nodes. Leaves shortly stalked, narrowly lanceclate, acumi- 
nate, densely white-cottony beneath ; stipules membranous, striate ; 
mouth unequally truncate, sparsely ciliate. Racemes slender, 1-2 in. 
long ; peduncles spreading, white-tomentose ; bracts small, crowded, 
densely white-woolly Perianth small, white or pink, eglandular. 
Stamens 6. Style 2-cleft. Nutlets small, orbicular, black and shining. 
